Family board games

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I'd love some recommendations for family board games please that I can play with my three children (14, 11 and 7, although the 7 year old often gives up half way through or just prefers to watch).

Ones we have enjoyed recently are:

• Catan, although it is generally only my eldest that wants to play this so would love something similar that is a 2 player game so that he and I could just play it.
• game of life
• Cluedo
• Scotland yard
• Ticket to ride London

What are your family's favourite board games?

I've never tried playing with just 2 players as it says you need a minimum of 3 on the box. If it still works well I'll try playing it with just my eldest then.

I like the look of Dread Pirate, I think the kids would like that one too

@purpleme12 What's the difference between the two? I just play the standard rules that came with my very old version of the game (my Mum gave me the one she had from when I was a child many many years ago!)

Labyrinth (by Ravensburger) is so fun; I enjoyed it as a kid and still do in my 30s!

Most of ours have been mentioned already. We liked most of the Days of Wonder board games (Small world, Ticket to Ride, Pirates) Seven Wonders, Castle Panic, Forbidden Island (a cooperative one, like Pandemic, which is also good). Other games we've also enjoyed include Game of Life (we have the Simpsons version), Cluedo (the Harry Potter version is fun - you get moving staircases) and Monopoly City.

One we have played for years is called Caveman: can your tribe survive, which was a favourite of DS2 when he was about 8, and is still a favourite now he is at uni. I never see it mentioned anywhere, but you start of with a few cavemen/women, and 'discover' fire, shetler etc, while growing your tribe (you make cavekids!), fighting off the other tribes and also avoiding the rampaging dinosaurs which any player can get to control on the draw of a card (away with you, historical accuracy!). Winner is the first to discover 5 technologies or to grow their tribe to 8 adults. And I want to get this one out again now, it's months since we last played.

One we played when I was younger was go for broke.
Dobble
Uno
Kerplunk (not quite board game but fun still)
The Isle of cats

Our favourites are labyrinth, baerenpark, trekking the world, villainous, museum suspects, harry potter cludo, exploding kittens and sleeping queens.

Alhambra
Architects of the West Kingdom
Azul
Scythe (advanced, but highly playable; we discovered this after Catan)
Ticket to Ride

Card games:
Bears vs Babies
Exploding Kittens
Skull
Unstable Unicorns (this one is a favourite)

Ooh good board games!
My absolute favourite thing was Pandemic Legacy. There are three seasons, and we started with the middle one (I think it was created first). It was amazing! You play 12 or more games of it with a building story. Makes for an awesome Christmas holiday for example.

Rummikub is a firm family favourite, all the cousins are into it too. Gets very competitive and scores carried over to the next round etc (I'm currently in the lead)

Agree on both, except for some reason photosynthesis makes us cross with each other... we keep blocking the sun from each others' trees and that's kind of the whole point but really frustrating! Maybe partly because it is an entirely un-luck-based game I think? Like chess? So you can just be outsmarted at it (which explains my frustration!).

You can google for how to adapt the rules to make Catan work for two players.

There is also a Catan extension that explicitly caters for a two-player game, can't remember which one though. Or perhaps it is in the book? There is a Catan book with hundreds of ideas to adapt the original game. It comes with lots of extra pieces you might want to use.

Speaking of extensions, perhaps you just need to find the right Catan extension so all DC will want to play? If you haven't got any yet, I'd start with the seafarers one. My DS absolutely adores the city&knights extension but younger DD vetoes that, seafarers is the one we can all agree on.

My family was Catan-obsessed for about a decade. We tried many other games in that time but none compared to Catan. Perhaps Carcassone came closest, later Ticket to Ride.

The game that finally took over from Catan is called DOG, but as far as I know it is very hard to get in the UK and doesn't come with English language rules.
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2633/dog
I'm sure you could pull the rules off the internet in English though. The game itself is language free.

Other games we currently enjoy:
Dixit
Plyt
The Game (card game)
Marrakech
Ingenious

And DS adores Werewolves but that is more of a group-of-teens sort of game (and again, not sure about English language versions).

Consider a board game cafe visit as well, they can usually recommend good games and you can then try out multiple different games and see if they work in your family dynamic!

Azul
Labyrinth
Splendor
Zooloretto

Small world is like risk but with a fixed end point so doesn't drag on.

Good idea, thanks. We have one nearby but I've never been

We love Outsmarted in our house, it's a great game if you have a wide range of ages as you can cater it to each players age. It's a bit like trivial pursuit but interactive.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions, I have a huge long wishlist now!